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All-female Takarazuka Theater Dazzles Japan

By Jon Herskovitz
Reuters

Contributed by Jodie Miller
Toyko
June 17, 1998

It is girl meets girl again on the Japanese stage, and fans cannot get enough of it.

Kabuki and Noh dramas may be the stuff of guide books on Japan, but the all- female Takarazuka Revue Company is the theater of choice for Japanese, particularly women.

For 85 years, the company, a mix of the Rockettes, Vegas chorus lines and Michael Jackson androgyny, has been playing to packed houses. Unlike other traditional forms of Japanese theater, Takarazuka's appeal shows no sign of waning.

Takarazuka attracts more than 2 million fans a year, about 95 percent of whom are female, to theaters in Tokyo and suburban Osaka, along with its nationwide tours.

The shows have fostered legions of adoring women who religiously wait hours in front of the stage door to catch glimpses of their favorite stars before performances.

The fans especially love the "otoko-yaku," or women actors who play men.

The otoko-yaku have short, coiffured hair befitting the young Elvis Presley, and wear dandyish clothes with heavy makeup. They know how to love the onna- yaku, the women who play women's roles, with power and passion.

Cooler Than Men? "The otoko-yaku are so much better than Japanese men," said Sachiko Takahashi, who has been to more Takarazuka performances than she can count.

"They are much more manly and much cooler," Takahashi said before attending a performance of "West Side Story."

Housewife Yoshiko Watanabe, 45, arrived at the Tokyo Takarazuka theater early with her daughter, 11-year-old Erika, in tow to stake out the actresses. Watanabe went to Takarazuka with her mother when she lived in Kobe, and she is passing on her passion for the all-woman theater group to her daughter.

"There is only one place like this in the world," Watanabe said.

"Takarazuka is the place of drama and dreams, and it is also a place where I can forget the world," she said.

Takarazuka theater was started by Hankyu railway magnate Ichizo Kobayashi, who was looking for a way to attract people to a hot spring pool run by the company in the Osaka suburb of Takarazuka.

Kobayashi hit on the idea of an all-female theatrical revue that would bring to life traditional Japanese drama and Western musicals.

Takarazuka was considered risque at the time, but theater fans, who were used to the all-male Kabuki and Noh, flocked to the hot spring resort to see the dancing and singing girls.

In the years that followed, the women of Takarazuka became the oldest and most celebrated all-female theatrical group in the country, taking their act overseas on 20 occasions.

They recently finished a weeklong tour of Hong Kong that played to packed theaters. Takarazuka also has wowed fans in cities such as London, New York, Paris, Moscow and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Among the staples over the years have been musicals such as "Me and My Girl," "Kiss Me Kate" and "Guys and Dolls," with passionate androgyny and highly skilled singing driving the shows.

The Takarazuka woman also have dazzled audiences with high-kicking chorus lines and traditional Japanese dance.

At the heart of the theatrical company is the Takarazuka Musical School.

The school started with 16 students in 1913 in order to train the women of the yet-to-be formed Takarazuka stage.

Competition is fierce for a slot at the school, with more than 1,000 girls a year vying for one of 40 openings.

The music school is a tightly regimented performance training academy, where girls between 15 and 18 pass by a front gate every morning emblazoned with the school's motto of "Purity, Honesty, Beauty."

Clean Training

The girls start with a baseboard-to-ceiling cleaning of the school at 7 a.m. Although no textbooks are needed, their curriculum encompasses demanding training in subjects such as ballet, classical dance, Japanese dance, choral singing, traditional Japanese stringed instruments and the tea ceremony.

"Our graduates make excellent wives and ideal citizens," said school administrator Kengo Ikenishi.

The graduates make up the workforce for the Takarazuka's five theater groups. Upon graduating from the two-year school, the girls, called Takarizienne, start their lives on stage.

It takes about 10 to 15 years to go from the chorus line to center stage. Many of the Takarizienne are forced to retire from the company once they marry.

Takarazuka graduates, especially the otoko-yaku, are considered prime catch for marriage in Japanese society. The school's offspring also have formed a powerful clique of company presidents, parliament members and leading entertainers.

While the boy-meets-girl stuff waits for the Takarizienne when they retire from the company, it is the girl-meets-girl stuff that has been packing theaters for years.

"The show is so beautiful, so dreamy and so romantic," said 55-year-old Aiko Machi.

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